Supreme Court blocks execution of Texas death row inmate

The Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked the execution of a death row inmate in Texas who had been sentenced to die for fatally stabbing an 85-year-old woman more than 20 years ago.

The justices in an unsigned order delayed Ruben Gutierrez’s execution about an hour before he would have been put to death. Gutierrez’s attorneys had appealed to the court to temporarily halt the killing by arguing that their client’s religious rights were being violated since the prison system barred a chaplain from accompanying him in the death chamber.

“The application for stay of execution of sentence of death presented to Justice Alito and by him referred to the Court is granted pending the disposition of the petition for a writ of certiorari,” the high court ruled.

The ruling is the latest development in an ongoing debate over the presence of clergy members in rooms where prisoners are executed.

The Texas prison system, which oversees more executions than any other state system, banned clergy from death chambers after the Supreme Court in 2019 halted the execution of a Buddhist prisoner who was denied a spiritual adviser. Only Christian and Muslim advisers were allowed in the room at the time. 

In response to the ruling, the prison system declared it would only allow prison security staff into the execution chamber.

“As a devout Catholic, Mr. Gutierrez’s faith requires the assistance of clergy to help him pass from life into afterlife. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice changed its policy for its own convenience, but spiritual comfort at the time of death is not a convenience; it’s a protected legal right,” Shawn Nolan, one of Mr. Gutierrez’s attorneys, told The Associated Press after the stay was granted.

The Supreme Court said it granted the stay pending another ruling on Gutierrez’s petition over whether the prison system should allow a spiritual adviser to accompany him during his execution.

The Supreme Court said that if it rules in favor of Gutierrez, a lower court “should promptly determine, based on whatever evidence the parties provide, whether serious security problems would result if a prisoner facing execution is permitted to choose the spiritual adviser the prisoner wishes to have in his immediate presence during the execution.”